A method of producing a display panel such as a liquid crystal panel included in a display device as described below has been known. A pair of substrates one of which includes a thin film pattern of semiconductor elements such as thin film transistors (TFTs) are bonded to each other and a bonded substrate is formed. The bonded substrate is cut along an outline of the display panel and a display panel is produced.
A display panel produced with the above producing method generally has a front view of a square outline or a rectangular outline. Recently, according to variety of usage of the display panels, display panels having a non-rectangular outline such as an outline a part of which is curved have been produced. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a method of producing a liquid crystal panel including a substantially ellipsoidal display area and, that is, a non-rectangular outline shape.
The substrate used for a display panel such as a liquid crystal panel is generally a plate-shaped glass substrate. For example, Patent Document 2 discloses a method of processing a great number of glass substrate plates with high production efficiency. Specifically, with the processing method, a great number of glass substrate plates are layered on each other and the great number of glass substrate plates are bonded to each other via a releasable bonding member that is disposed between the glass substrate plates to form a glass substrate block. Next, the glass substrate block is divided with respect to a surface direction into divided glass substrate blocks each having a small area. Next, at least outer periphery of each divided glass substrate block is processed to form a product glass block having a plan view product shape. Next, after the product glass block is subjected to an edge surface process, the product glass block is separated into respective plates. With such a processing method, the great number of glass substrate plates that are layered on each other are subjected to a dividing process, outer shape processing, and the edge surface process. Therefore, a great number of glass plate products can be produced with a small number of steps and productivity is enhanced.
In the processing method described in Patent Document 2, photo-curable liquid bonding material that is cured by irradiation of ultraviolet rays and softened from the cured state by increasing temperature is used as the bonding member disposed between the glass substrates.